doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Deeley box ejector system

I am looking at a circa 1900 UK provincial boxlock with the Deeley box ejector system. The dealer tells me the ejectors are timed and functioning properly but I have not been to confirm that in person. I read on an earlier post here that this system does not throw hulls as enthusiastically as the Southgate ejectors. That is not really a concern for me, but I would appreciate hearing if I should be concerned about reliability or timing issues with this ejector system.

Thanks in advance, Doverham

The miniature mainsprings in them are supposed to be prone to breakage due to their short length. I have a nice gun with them and, wonder of wonders, had one of the springs break. It's not a simple looking v-spring: it has a "clasp" filed into one end just like you'd see on a mainspring in a good bar action sidelock. My ejectors are Westley Richards, the box marked WR. Have been meaning to contact them about a replacement spring, if they still use them.
Mine kicks the hulls out just fine. Well, the one side does.

The WR ejector system (aka Deeley box) is about as reliable as an ejector system can be. The inner workings of the box is basically a miniature version of the A&D system that makes up the boxlock action. Recently a friend of mine took his A&D boxlock into the shop for a strip and clean. He hasn't owned the gun for very long, I checked the gun out for him when he got it in and everything worked fine. A few months later he noticed that the ejectors were out of time. After about 10 minutes in the gunmakers hands, the ejectors were working fine again. There is a little pin that holds the works together, this pin had become ever so slightly loose and drifted out just a hair, enough to obviously throw the timing of the works off. A gentle tap to re-set the pin into is proper place and the ejectors worked like new again. Replacement springs for the system are not too difficult to make, any gunmaker who understands the boxlock system and can make springs should be able to make it right again with little trouble.

An example...notice the pin placements, for both "hammer" and "sear", just like a boxlock action

There have been several versions of the Deeley boxes made by Westley's and by others .As a result there are "short" strings and "long" spring boxes. If you want to get one from Westleys then I would send print of the spring to them . Order a couple as its a sure bet as soon as you replace one the other will go ,especially if you haven't got a spare

Thanks for the info and the suggestion re the spare springs.

after repeated attempts to make the spring myself, I finally found a company in England and ordered a replacement from them. I couldn't get mine to fit exactly, theirs dropped right in. I'll look to see if I have the name of the company that provided mine.

Thanks Gunman; would've assumed the boxes were all identical.